Work out Wednesdays promotes health among youth

It all started back in 2013 at North Smithfield middle school—where, one day a week, the physical education teachers set up a sort of obstacle course for students.

“It’s been really good for the kids to experience different ways of working out so it’s not just sport-based,” said Mark Labossiere, physical education and health teacher at the middle school.

The gym is converted into a rock climbing, tire-flipping, army crawling obstacle course. The set up is intense, said Labossiere, who says he and fellow physical education teacher, Jeff Crins, begin setting up the night before. Some of the equipment belongs to Crins.

“I like squats,” said Jaclyn Vincent, a seventh grade student.

“For me, push-ups.” Said Grace Lane, another student. “They’re really hard but this gives me a chance to work on them.”

“Work out Wednesdays is something we feel like all the kids need,” said Crins. “We’re competing against video games. They go home and play video games for hours, so our goal in phys ed is to have them move as much as possible. It’s getting them moving, have fun, try something different.”

And the students love it.

“It’s just the variety of things that we can do,” said Nicholas Carufel, another student.